Life is a characteristic distinguishing physical entities having biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased, or because they never had such functions and are classified as inanimate. Various forms of life exist, such as plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea, and bacteria. The criteria can at times be ambiguous and may or may not define viruses, viroids, or potential artificial life as “living”. Biology is the primary science concerned with the study of life, although many other sciences are involved.

The definition of life is controversial. The current definition is that organisms maintain homeostasis, are composed of cells, undergo metabolism, can grow, adapt to their environment, respond to stimuli, and reproduce. However, many other biological definitions have been proposed, and there are some borderline cases of life, such as viruses. Properties common to all organisms include the need for certain core chemical elements to sustain biochemical functions. — Wikipedia

Biosphere also known as the ecosphere, is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems. It can also be termed the zone of life on Earth, a closed system (apart from solar and cosmic radiation and heat from the interior of the Earth), and largely self-regulating. By the most general biophysiological definition, the biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the lithosphere, geosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. — Wikipedia

Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their physical structure, chemical processes, molecular interactions, physiological mechanisms, development and evolution. Despite the complexity of the science, there are certain unifying concepts that consolidate it into a single, coherent field. Biology recognizes the cell as the basic unit of life, genes as the basic unit of heredity, and evolution as the engine that propels the creation and extinction of species. Living organisms are open systems that survive by transforming energy and decreasing their local entropy to maintain a stable and vital condition defined as homeostasis. — Wikipedia

EurekAlert! - Biology The premier online source for science news since 1996. A service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

(Washington University in St. Louis) Researchers in the School of Engineering & Applied Science have discovered a new, natural law that sheds light on the fundamental relationship between coated black carbon and light absorption. […]

(DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) Only a fraction of the microbes residing in, on and around soils have been identified through efforts to understand their contributions to global nutrient cycles. Soils are also home to countless viruses that can infect microbes, impacting their ability to regulate these global cycles. In Nature Communications, giant virus genomes have been discovered for the first time in a forest soil ecosystem by researchers from the DOE Joint Genome Institute and […]

(Harvard University) Harvard researchers are among the co-editors of a special issue of Philosophical Transactions B dedicated to exploring the creative ways in which researchers have made use of biological collections around the world and to advocating for their continued preservation. […]

(Portland State University) Researchers at Portland State University discover that vitamin D plays a key role in embryonic development in vertebrates and by blocking vitamin D in embryos of zebrafish, researchers were able to induce dormancy in a species that doesn't enter dormancy. The discovery could have major implications in human health research. […]

Cat lovers know when kitties groom, their tongues are pretty scratchy. Using high-tech scans and some other tricks, scientists are learning how those sandpapery tongues help cats get clean and stay cool. […]

As the IPCC warns that we have only 12 years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly half or risk significantly greater impacts from climate change, University of California, Berkeley, scientists are charting the best course to save California's native plants from these human threats. […]

In a box, within a canister, surrounded by snow, tucked tightly into a backpack strapped to one determined ecologist. Twenty at a time they travel, these unassuming, iconic frogs, departing places where they're thriving for sites from which their species has vanished. Their mission: population recovery. […]

New research from Portland State University finds vitamin D, or a lack thereof can trigger or suspend embryonic development in a species of fish. The study also provides evidence suggesting the vitamin is critical to the early development of vertebrates generally. […]

Immigrants to the U.S. lose their native mix of gut microbes almost immediately after arriving in the U.S.—which researchers can't quite explain. Christopher Intagliata reports.
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